For the Record’s week in review: 'Damn emails' are back

 
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For the Record's week in review: those "damn emails" (as Bernie Sanders once called them) are back.

An "October surprise" - an unforeseen event that changes or has a negative impact on a campaign close to Election Day - is not a new concept. There have been lots of them over the years ("Politico Magazine" has a full list): A stock market crash in 2008 that hurt John McCain's chances and revelations about George W. Bush pleading guilty to driving under the influence of alcohol 24 years before the 2000 election, just to name a couple.

But this October has been a doozy. We found out that Donald Trump may not have paid income taxes for almost two decades, a video caught him talking about groping women because of his star power, Wikileaks has been releasing near daily emails from the Clinton campaign's chairman, a dozen women have accused Trump of sexual misconduct and on Friday, the FBI said they were reviewing potentially new evidence related to the investigation into Hillary Clinton's email server. And the month isn't over.

It's you're For the Record week in review with less than two weeks to go until Election Day.

The FBI reopens the email investigation

The Clinton campaign breathed a sigh of relief in July when FBI Director James Comey said that while Clinton was "extremely careless" in her handling of the server, her actions did not rise to the level of a crime. But now the campaign is probably holding its breath once again after Comey issued a surprise letter  saying he was going to look at new evidence related to the investigation because more emails had been discovered. Also it later came out that the emails were discovered from a separate investigation of Anthony Weiner's sexting. So, you know, 2016 couldn't get any weirder

"In connection with an unrelated case, the FBI has learned of the existence of emails that appear to be pertinent to the investigation. I am writing to inform you that the investigation team briefed me on this yesterday, and I agreed that the FBI should take appropriate investigative steps designed to allow investigators to review these emails to determine whether they contain classified information, as well as to assess their importance to our investigation," Comey wrote.

Trump - at a rally shortly after the news broke - applauded the FBI and Department of Justice for having "the courage to right the horrible mistake that they made."

"Perhaps, finally, justice will be done," he continued.

The emails have been one of the most damaging issues for Clinton, and Friday's announcement came on the heels of a bad week for the Democratic nominee. On Wednesday night, a 2011 memo, discovered in John Podesta's leaked emails, showed that some of Bill Clinton's business deals were tied to the non-profit Clinton Foundation. And Monday, federal regulators announced that some Obamacare health insurance rates would go up 25% - not great for the candidate championing President Obama's record.

At least Clinton has lots of money...

Clinton may be investigated by the FBI again, but at least her campaign can cheer the fact that she has raised lots of money. Reports filed with the Federal Election Commission on Thursday found that both candidates had spent approximately $50 million in October so far. But the amount of cash they had left in their war chests varied - big league (we now have real confirmation that Trump is not saying "bigly".)

Trump had $15.9 million on hand while Clinton had stockpiled nearly four times that much - $62.4 million.

Trump keeps saying he'll invest $100 million of his own money by Election Day, but he still has a long way to go in just a week and a half. As of Thursday's report, he had injected just over half of that - $56 million. And on Friday he announced he had added an additional $10 million.

Clinton's big money advantage is also mirrored in the number of ads her campaign and allies are airing compared to his.

News from the trail

Mike Pence's rough year continues, as his plane skids off the runway (USA TODAY)

One-fourth of millennials would rather be hit by a meteor than vote for Clinton, Trump (USA TODAY)

Clinton to spend election night under a glass ceiling (USA TODAY)

Sheryl Crow is petitioning for a shorter campaign (USA TODAY)

Mark Kirk under fire for comments about Tammy Duckworth's heritage (USA TODAY)

Bernie Sanders' warning for the next president (USA TODAY)

The un-endorsement endorsement

"The Yale Record" has some glowing things to say about Clinton, but the school newspaper is definitely not endorsing her. In one of the most creative takes on the presidential endorsement this cycle, "The Yale Record" said it hadn't endorsed a candidate in its history. But that was just because of "our strong commitment to being a tax-exempt 501(c)3 organization."

"This year's presidential election is highly unusual, but ultimately no different: 'The Yale Record' believes both candidates to be equally un-endorsable, due to our faithful compliance with the tax code.

"In particular, we do not endorse Hillary Clinton's exemplary leadership during her 30 years in the public eye. We do not support her impressive commitment to serving and improving this country-a commitment to which she has dedicated her entire professional career. Because of unambiguous tax law, we do not encourage you to support the most qualified presidential candidate in modern American history, nor do we encourage all citizens to shatter the glass ceiling once and for all by electing Secretary Clinton on November 8.

"'The Yale Record' has no opinion whatsoever on Dr. Jill Stein."

You decide who they're backing.




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